When Congress sent tens of billions of dollars to schools — an unprecedented sum — to battle the coronavirus pandemic, it seemed like reopening campuses was going to be the toughest thing.

The federal government sent nearly $200 billion to U.S. schools in the past few years to help address Covid-era learning challenges. Now the first studies are out showing what the money accomplished—and hinting at what could happen when it goes away this fall.

The federal government invested $190 billion in pandemic aid for schools; the largest chunk, $122 billion, came in 2021 to help students recover. Altogether, it was the largest one-time federal investment in American education, but it came with a major question: Would it work?

America’s schools received an unprecedented $190 billion in federal emergency funding during the pandemic. Since then, one big question has loomed over them: Did that historic infusion of federal relief help students make up for the learning they missed?

Pandemic school closures upended U.S. education. Many students lost significant ground, and the federal government invested billions to help them recover.

Overall, average test scores improved for both poor and nonpoor students in the 15 states for which researchers had economic data. But the improvements were larger for students who were not from poor families. As a result, the gap in achievement based on income grew.

Student test scores are on a path to recovery nearly four years after the pandemic wreaked havoc on K-12 academics, extensive new data analyzed and released by a group of education researchers this week indicate.

Harvard researcher, Tom Kane, speaks with Megan Clarke about the challenges that students are facing in academic recovery.

Between 2019 and 2023, Massachusetts was among the states with the largest widening between high and low-income districts in both math and reading.

Despite massive infusions of federal COVID dollars into the state’s poorest schools and a return to normal schooling, the gap between math scores in rich and poor districts – which widened significantly during the pandemic – continues to grow.

New Jersey students will need until the 2026-7 school year to get back to 2019 achievement levels in math, according to a report released Wednesday showing data from 30 states.

Tom Kane joins show to talk about Michigan students slow recovery from pandemic.

Nationally, the research found that while students in many states, including Michigan, did advance in math and reading between 2022 and 2023, the gains hardly make up for losses sustained between 2019 and 2022.

More than three years after the pandemic shuttered schools and brought learning to a near standstill, Louisiana students have fully recovered in reading and made major strides in math.

Tennessee saw some of the largest learning recovery from pandemic conditions, according to a study from the Harvard Center for Education Policy Research.

Many American parents would be shocked to know where their kids were actually achieving. Nationally, 90% of parents think their children are reading and doing math at or above grade level. In fact, 26% of eighth graders are proficient or above in math and 31% are proficient or above in English.

As a new school year begins, parents are trying to figure out where their children stand after the dramatic learning losses of the coronavirus pandemic. School boards and lawmakers are deciding how to spend their remaining federal recovery funds — which must be designated by next fall — and where to concentrate their efforts.

New research paints the clearest picture yet of just how much learning students missed during the pandemic, and what it may take to help children in the hardest hit districts to make up ground.

As part of a team of researchers from Harvard, Stanford, Dartmouth, Johns Hopkins and the testing company NWEA — the Education Recovery Scorecard project — we have been sifting through data from 7,800 communities in 41 states, to understand where test scores declined the most, what caused these patterns and whether they are likely to endure.

Without a successful recovery effort, student learning loss will be the longest lasting (and most inequitable) legacy of the COVID-19 pandemic.

From unfinished learning to missing students and lost earnings, these charts help explain the pandemic’s long-term impact

According to national research, 92% of ALL parents, regardless of race, income or geography, believe their child is reading and doing math at or above grade level…even after the pandemic.

American students have experienced a historic decline in academic achievement. The only possible response — the only rational response — is a historic collective investment in children and young adults.

The latest test scores underscore the dire need for academic recovery for students — and schools are racing against the clock to combat the daunting task.

The recent release of national scores showing drops in math and reading sparked criticisms of how long school districts remained virtual during the pandemic. Are those criticisms fair?

With higher-poverty districts showing the most lost learning, the pandemic’s effects, if not remedied.

Researchers found that gains in eighth-grade math are closely correlated with outcomes like high school graduation, college enrollment, and earnings

The National Assessment Governing Board hosted the release of the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Mathematics and Reading results – the most comprehensive picture to date of the pandemic’s impact on student achievement.

Despite bright spots, data on national learning loss is gloomy

The scale of the disruption is evident in a district-by-district analysis of test scores shared exclusively with AP.

Alabama students led the nation in maintaining math and reading learning during the pandemic, according to a new national analysis.

A data analysis from education researchers at Harvard and Stanford universities confirms a bleak trend on national student test scores released this week: Oregon student learning fell sharply between 2019 and 2020, moreso than in other states.

The COVID-19 pandemic devastated poor children’s well-being, not just by closing their schools, but also by taking away their parents’ jobs, sickening their families and teachers, and adding chaos and fear to their daily lives.

Findings Incorporate Data on Weeks Remote and ESSER Dollars per District, Allowing Leaders to Re-calibrate Their Recovery Plans

Polikoff & Houston: COVID has affected kids’ learning. But those facts are not reaching parents. If we can’t fix that, it will be a disaster

A local focus, professional development, accelerated classwork and policies that keep costs down can help make tutoring programs a success

As a new school year approaches, COVID-19 infections are again on the rise, fueled by highly transmissible variants, filling families with dread. They fear the return of a pandemic scourge: outbreaks that sideline large numbers of teachers, close school buildings and force students back into remote learning.

Educators need a plan ambitious enough to remedy enormous learning losses.

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The achievement gap was smaller in school districts that kept students in classrooms.

New research is showing the high costs of long school closures in some communities.

Study finds students in high-poverty districts had much less in-person instruction, lost more ground academically

New research is showing the high costs of long school closures in some communities.